Deric Bownds

LATEST ARTICLES ( 2661 )

• Building Molecular Machines.

  In an open source PNAS news article, Stephen Ornes describes efforts to build molecular machines modeled on our own biochemical processes - possibly artificial... Read more

  Posted on 20 September 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Mapping Our Subjective Feelings.

  

  Nummenmaa et al. do a massive job of data gathering whose purpose left me scratching my head on first sight...wondering why such an effort is useful. Read more

  Posted on 16 September 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Details of How a Fear Response is Unlearned.

  Learning requires the formation of new nerve connections. When that learning is extinguished are those connections inhibited or lost? Wan Lai et al. Read more

  Posted on 13 September 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Exposure to Opposing Views on Social Media Can Increase Political Polarization.

  A sobering study by Bail et al. (open source) shows that just getting us out of our tribes' social media echo chambers does not have the palliative softening... Read more

  Posted on 12 September 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• How Exercise Slows Alzheimer’s Disease.

  Wow…if I ever needed more encouragement to keep up my exercise routines (mainly swimming, biking, and a few weights) Choi et al. Read more

  Posted on 11 September 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Robots R Us

  Two recent NYTimes pieces - one by Sherry Turtle (professor in the program in Science, Technology and Society at M.I.T.) and the other by Andy Clark (professor... Read more

  Posted on 10 September 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Collective Intelligence is Improved by Intermittent Breaks in Interaction.

  Interesting work from Bernstein, Shore, and Lazer: Significance Many human endeavors—from teams and organizations to crowds and democracies—rely on solving... Read more

  Posted on 30 August 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Robots Exert Peer Pressure on Children, but Not Adults.

  From Vollmer et al.: People are known to change their behavior and decisions to conform to others, even for obviously incorrect facts. Read more

  Posted on 29 August 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Reversing Age Related Decay of Brain Plasticity with Prozac

  Eavri et al. find that treatment of mice with fluoxetine as they are aging slows the decline of several brain plasticity makers. Read more

  Posted on 28 August 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• On the Reception and Detection of Pseudo-profound Bullshit

  I want to thank MindBlog reader Mike Walterman, who sent me an email pointing me to this article (which won an Ig Nobel Prize) and commented on his experience... Read more

  Posted on 27 August 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Architecture of Pride is a Cultural Universal.

  Sznycer et al. provide evidence that the pride system of WEIRD (western-ized, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic) societies is found in 10... Read more

  Posted on 24 August 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Brain Tracking of Musical Beat is Enhanced by Low Frequency Sounds.

  Lenc et al. find that that brain activity at the frequency of the perceived beat is selectively enhanced compared with other frequencies in the... Read more

  Posted on 22 August 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The False Idols of Wellness.

  Jen Gunter does an engaging take-down of the wellness-industrial complex in a NYTimes piece. She suggests that the wellness industry is exploiting rather than... Read more

  Posted on 21 August 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Mesolimbic Reward Circuitry Influences Valuation of Knowledge Versus Ignorance.

  From Charpentier et al.: The pursuit of knowledge is a basic feature of human nature. However, in domains ranging from health to finance people sometimes... Read more

  Posted on 20 August 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Meditation Quiets the Ego? ….maybe Just the Opposite.

  From Gebauer et al.. In their abstract "self-enhancement bias" refers to exaggerated self views or valuations. Mind-body practices enjoy immense public and... Read more

  Posted on 17 August 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Neuroscience of Pessimism.

  Ann Graybiel and collaborators offer a fascinating study showing that stimulation of the brain's caudate nucleus induces persistent and repetitive negative... Read more

  Posted on 16 August 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• More Evidence Against the Transferable Benefits of Online Brain Training on...

  From Stojanoski et al.: There is strong incentive to improve our cognitive abilities, and brain training has emerged as a promising approach for achieving this... Read more

  Posted on 15 August 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Controlling Drones with a Body-machine Interface.

  

  On first glance this article creeped me out, because when control of drones at a distance is mentioned I think of the drones used to bomb ISIS or Al Quaeda cell... Read more

  Posted on 13 August 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• No Gender Differences in Early Math Cognition.

  Kersey et al. have examined data from more than 500 children ranging in age from 6 months to 8 years across several tests of numerosity, counting, and elementar... Read more

  Posted on 10 August 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• A Ecosystem of Podcast Bros Who Want to Optimize Your Life.

  I'm not a podcast or video kind of person, being too impatient to listen to or watch material that I can absorb more rapidly by reading about it. Read more

  Posted on 09 August 2018 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE